President Obama to speak at USNA graduation

President Obama will give the 2013 commencement address at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., a White House official said.

Academy superintendent Vice Adm. Michael Miller confirmed this morning the commander in chief’s participation in commencement and commissioning. Graduation is scheduled for May 24.

“After four years of moral development, rigorous study and physical challenges, more than 1,000 midshipmen will become officers in the Navy and Marine Corps on this day and will look to the president for his leadership and wisdom as they get ready for their first assignments,” Miller said in a statement.

The president last spoke at graduation in 2009, when he told graduating midshipmen that he would only send them into harm’s way when it was “absolutely necessary.” It was his first commencement address at a military institution after taking office in January 2009.